It has been observed that there exists an overabundance of waste materials produced by our society and that means to re-utilize these materials, has for a large part, been overlooked. In recent years, the concept of recycling has gained momentum wherein basic consumer goods such as paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, or the like may be re-instituted into the consumer product chain, thus alleviating the load on the environment. Moreover, as we have become more of a disposable product based society, it has become more important to re-use all the materials we can and in all possible ways. Adding to this is pressure be more responsible with our common resources, especially materials that particularly lends themselves to recycling such as aluminum, paper, glass, and plastic. It has further been observed that our society produces a rather large amount of beverage cans such as those for the containment of soft drinks, beer, or other consumable juices. Research has shown that as many as 156 billion cans were produced in the year of 2003 yet only 42% of these cans were recycled.
In order to provide a use for empty beverage cans, various designs have been suggested which allows a plurality of beverage cans to be releasably mounted one upon another in a modular fashion. U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,281 to Kander, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,082 to Freedman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,491 to Ferrarelli, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,143 to Gat, et al. disclose various beverage can stacking devices having varying types of releasable retention mechanism for releasable attachment of the top and bottom ends of a conventional beverage can. However, all of these devices are capable of interconnecting only one can co-axially to another can; the interconnecting of additional cans which are disposed laterally relative thereto must be accomplished via complicated and cumbersome interconnect mechanisms whose retentive strength would most likely degrade due to extended use. Moreover, the interconnect mechanisms as described in the aforementioned patents do not allow a plurality of cans which are laterally interconnected relative to one another to be optimally “packed” together in order to form a building block with minimal spacing therebetween.
Another drawback is that the aforementioned beverage can stacking devices are not easily adapted for packaging and sale along with the beverage product. Each of the stacking devices must be purchased separately from the canned beverage product, thereby diminishing the likelihood of consumer acceptance.
Yet another drawback of the aforementioned designs is that neither device discloses a top portion can engagement member having an annular depression formed therein for resilient retainment of the upper lip of a top portion of a beverage can therein in conjunction with a bottom portion can engagement member for resilient friction engagement of the bottom portion of a beverage container disposed coaxially thereabove. This aspect of the prior art, by itself, reveals a salient utilitarian ramification. The prior art can stacking devices having annular depressions formed in both of the coaxially disposed can engagement members would optimally retain only the top portion of a conventional can, thus inverting the longitudinal orientation of the proceeding can therebeneath, which in turn would hinder the ability to stack additional cans above or below. Moreover, can stacking devices having hollow, cylindrically shaped members formed in both of the coaxially disposed can engagement members would not employ the enhanced releasable securing feature of an annular depression for optimal retainment of the lip portion of a conventional can therein.